


in the morning

by poe_daaaayyuuuumron8



Series: Of Memories and Treasures to Keep [14]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bar Fight, Hurt/Comfort, Not Just a Baby, Tup Gets Into A Bar Fight, Tup is Scarily Competent, but he is still baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:21:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27361906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poe_daaaayyuuuumron8/pseuds/poe_daaaayyuuuumron8
Summary: When Tup, Rex, Fives, and Jesse go out for a quiet night at the bar, no one expects a bar fight. Least of all involving Tup.His brothers try their hardest.
Relationships: CT-27-5555 | Fives | ARC-5555 & CT-7567 | Rex & CT-5385 | Tup, CT-7567 | Rex & CT-5385 | Tup, Hardcase & CT-5597 | Jesse & CT-6116 | Kix, No Romantic Relationship(s), Unless you want it to be - Relationship
Series: Of Memories and Treasures to Keep [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1741099
Comments: 2
Kudos: 58





	in the morning

It is with great joy, and even greater satisfaction that Tup feels something break with the next punch to the man’s face. 

He doesn’t know this guy, only knows what he was saying a minute before, before Tup decided that that was enough, and he was so desperately trying not to believe him.

He lets that man fall to the ground, clutching his now bloody face, and turns just in time to get hit in the face by one of the others. He savors the pain, in a sick sort of way. 

-

Fives is the first one to notice that Tup has been gone too long, as expected. He always wants to have eyes on Tup. 

It’s been too long and 79’s is suddenly too loud -crescendoing with the tell-tale sounds of a fight- and it takes all of three seconds for them to suddenly dash out of the booth, and make their way as fast as they could to the bar.

It is Fives, again, who sprints forward first, before the others react, yanking the guy off of Tup, not expecting to have to grab Tup before he could throw himself, kicking, and punching, and screaming at the guy. Fives sees Jesse grab the guy, who is trying to get back up, and push him back against the wall, muttering a warning.

It’s a little hard to see, trying to avoid Tup’s flailing arms and legs and trying to keep him from murdering someone, which he is, in fact, threatening to do. Fives, with a little help from Rex, gets Tup outside, where he throws himself from Fives’ arms, stumbling into the street, and finding a railing to lean on, spitting up blood onto the concrete. 

“Tup, what the hell?” Rex barks, advancing towards him, to which Tup only responds by calling him a few choice words that Fives is very surprised he has the balls to use directed at Rex. Echo and Jesse exchange glances with Fives, wary of how different Tup is acting. Rex pauses a couple paces from Tup, and his jaw visibly clenches. He looks to Fives and jerks his chin towards Tup, before going off to call a cab. 

Fives starts forward immediately, and reaches out to Tup, only for him to jerk away. 

“Don’t fucking touch me,” Tup growls, almost ferally, and backs himself into the railing, glaring at Fives with such ferocity that Fives nearly gulps. 

“I forgot how scarily competent he was,” Fives hears Jesse murmur to himself. He ignores him.

“Tup, vod, we’re just going to get you home, okay?” Fives says, and he feels like he’s approaching a spooked animal. He gently reaches out to him, but Tup sends his hand a glare and Fives pulls it back. 

“Tup, please, you’re bleeding, let’s just get you home,” Fives tries again, as Tup sits down on the curb heavily, leaning back against the railing. Tup glares at him and Fives sees the angry tears in his eyes.

“Just leave me the fuck alone,” Tup growls, but its weaker than the last times, and Fives pushes forward, even though he wants to just leave it alone, because Tup is scary like this. 

“C’mon, let’s just go home, let Kix look at you. That’s it, that’s all you have to do. We can talk about it later, we’re not going to talk about it tonight,” Fives says, and crouches down to his level, resting a hand on his shoulder. 

Finally, Tup nods, and Fives pulls him up, and they head to the cab. The ride is silent, except for Jesse and Rex conversing quietly, and the cab driver reminding them that if they get blood on the seats, they have to pay for the cleaning.

Kix, Echo, and Hardcase await them when they get home, watching a crappy horror movie and eating slightly overcooked popcorn, unaware of what had gone down minutes before. 

“Kix,” Rex calls the moment they step into the apartment, and he startles up. 

“Why the hell do you guys need me? You were gone for like two hours.” He rolls his eyes, and scans the group, eyes widening fractionally when he sees Tup. “Alright, not what I expected.” 

Fives gently leads Tup into the bathroom and sits him down where Kix can work on him. Rex follows, silently leaning against the door frame, reminding Fives of that one time he and Jesse accidentally got into that tauntaun nest and the mother accepted them as one of her children, leading an angry tauntaun mother to ransack the camp looking for her ‘children.’ But that was a different story.

It is eerily quiet, especially for them, and Fives wants nothing more than to ask Tup what the hell happened, but he said they wouldn’t talk about it. Luckily, or maybe un-luckily, Rex made no such promises. 

“So, you want to tell us what the kriff that was?” Rex says, coming to a stop over Kix’s shoulder. 

Tup sends Fives a glare, before turning the glare on Rex. “A fight,” he answers innocently, before returning his sights to a point on the opposite wall. 

“Cut the crap,” Rex growls, leaning on the counter. 

“Yeah? What are you gonna do? Court marshal me, Captain?” Tup fires back, in that same, dangerous tone as earlier. 

“I’m not here as your Captain,” Rex says, kneeling down next to Kix so he’s eyelevel with Tup. “I’m here as your brother, okay? So what the hell was that?” 

Tup looks at him for a second before averting his gaze to the ground and shaking his head minutely.

“C’mon ad’ika,” Fives murmurs, stepping forward. 

He sees something shift in Tup’s expression, and when he looks up, he is angry. 

“I’m not your kid,” he says, voice hard and strained. 

Fives blinks, taken aback. “I-I know that.” 

“I’m not your kid, so don’t call me that. I’m not a baby, so I don’t need to be treated like one. Just leave me the fuck alone!” He shoves away Kix’s hands, who jerks back in surprise. 

“Tup, we know you’re not a baby,” Rex says, standing.

“Then stop fucking treating me like one!” Kix reaches out for him. “Stop touching me, just get the fuck out!”

His breathing is too haggard, and his eyes are too wild, and they leave, because what else are they supposed to do?

There’s a long moment when all they do is stand in the hallway, with Jesse, Hardcase, and Echo, looking between each other, with wide eyes. 

It’s Rex that moves first, to the kitchen, no doubt to get some caf. 

“What do we do now?” Hardcase asks quietly, leaning into Jesse slightly. 

Kix shakes his head, and walks off to the living room, curling up on the couch again. Jesse joins him in a little later, after changing into his pajamas and drinking two glasses of water, as per Kix’s request. Hardcase followed shortly after, using Jesse as a pillow, and Echo as a blanket. Rex, after drinking some caf, sits slightly apart from the others, not really paying attention to the movie. They leave room on the couch, in between Fives and Rex.

Tup does not come out.

They stay like that for maybe an hour or two, long enough to start a new movie that seems like it's trying to be a comedy, but failing a little. Jesse is the first one to fall asleep, followed by Echo, Hardcase, and Kix. Fives and Rex stay up. 

It is not really something that is hard for them to do, considering they would spend days at a time with no sleep, and still struggle with a consistent sleep schedule even now after the war is over. Luckily, the caf seemed to have helped, and long after Rex turned the TV off and dimmed the lights, and a threw a blanket over his brothers sleeping on the couch, and put the dishes in the sink, and locked the door, and did everything he could think to do, he was still awake. 

It was 0349 in the morning when the door to the bathroom opened. Tup stepped out, looking tired and disheveled, his face still slightly bloody and pretty bruised. Rex sent him a soft smile. 

“Hey,” he called quietly. He bit back the ‘kid’ he usually tacked on on the end. 

Tup didn’t answer, merely sat down heavily in the empty spot between Rex and Fives and pulled his knees up to his chest. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispers, and Rex has to restrain himself from reaching out for him, because he doesn’t know if that’s what he needs right now. 

“It’s okay Tup. We don’t blame you,” Tup blinks quickly, and Rex sees the tears welling in his eyes. ‘Fuck it,’ he decides, and reaches out to him. Apparently that is exactly what he needs because Tup is immediately sinking into his arms, and Rex feels his shoulders shaking. 

“It’s okay, Tup. We’re not angry, we’re just worried. It’s gonna be okay,” he murmurs into his long hair, rocking slightly as Tup cries in his arms. 

“He was talking about-about how we weren’t human. How we should have just been, been... decommissioned instead,” Tup whispers, through shuddering breaths. Rex tightens his grip on him and forces himself to keep breathing. 

It was no secret the public opinions on clones were down. It was no secret they were seen as lesser, or as cannon-fodder who should’ve been thrown away. 

But it was one thing hearing about it. It was another thing when it was directly to your little brother. 

“Tup, listen to me, okay?” He felt him nod, slightly. “We are not expendable. We are not lesser than everyone else. We shouldn’t have been decommissioned. We are people, and we are here, and we are going to stay here. Stay alive. And if anybody thinks for a second, that they can threaten, or hurt one of us, we’ll give ‘em hell.”

They’re silent for a long minute after that, as Rex sits and holds Tup. 

“‘M face ‘urts,” Tup mutters out, his voice thick. 

Rex chuckles a little, and shifts his hold on his brother. “Yeah, I bet. I’ll get you some painkillers, then we can go to sleep, yeah?”

“Mm. In the morning, sleep now,” Tup replies, and Rex smiles slightly, allowing himself to be used as a pillow as Tup slowly falls asleep. 

“In the morning,” Rex repeats, and smooths Tup’s hair.


End file.
